234 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



REVIEW OF THE CROP SEASON OF 1902. 



By T. B. Jennings, Topeka. 



Read (by title ) before the Academy, at Topeka, January 2, 1903. 



JANUARY. 



^T^HE mean temperature was 1.3 degrees above normal and the pre- 

 -■- cipitation averaged 0.09 above the normal. The first three 

 weeks of the month were unusually warm and dry, followed by 

 colder weather, and much snow the last ten days. Much plowing 

 was accomplished in the southern counties. Wheat, not pastured 

 too closely, continued in good condition, and during the cold weather 

 was covered with snow two to six inches deep. 



FEBRUARY. 



Was cold and dry, the mean temperature being 3.2 degrees below 

 normal and the precipitation 0.27 of an inch below. During the 

 coldest part of the month the wheat in the eastern and many of the 

 central counties was fairly well covered with snow. At the close of 

 the month the wheat was generally in good condition, though in 

 some of the central counties it had been somewhat damaged by the 

 cold. Plowing was resumed in the southern and some of the central 

 counties during the last week, and oat sowing began in Montgomery 

 county and barley sowing in Clark. 



MARCH. 



W^heat improved rapidly in the last ten days of the month, and, 

 with few exceptions, was in fair condition in the central counties, 

 and fine condition in the eastern, being in the best condition where 

 the snow had remained the longest in the winter. Oat sowing was 

 well along in the northern counties; completed in the southern, 

 where they were coming up. Corn planting had begun in the south.' 

 Early potatoes were mostly planted. Flax sowing had begun south. 

 Tame grasses were growing well in the south and starting in the 

 north, with prairie grass starting in the south and alfalfa greening. 

 Peach and apricot trees were beginning to bloom in the south ; but 

 the peach buds had been winter-killed in the north and mostly killed 

 in the central counties. 



APRIL. 



The weather was not favorable for crop growth, but fine for field- 

 work, except on the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 25th, when high winds were 

 general. Wheat continued in good condition in the central and 

 southern counties of the eastern division, where the principal rains 



J 



